ID: IRCNE2013061882
Date: 2013-06-25
According to "techworld", the first fake antivirus app targetting Android users has been spotted by Symantec, which says this fake A/V app can also act like ransomware to hold the victim's Android device hostage.
Fake antivirus scams have long been a plague hitting Windows-based PCs to try to fool victims into thinking that there's a virus on the PC that the fake A/V can fix -- typically with some money, of course. Symantec says it's now spotted what it believes to be the first known similar type of ruse aimed at Android users through a fake A/V calling itself Android Defender.
Unfortunately, the Android Defender fake antivirus app is a program that the victim would have mistakenly installed.
"Once the malicious app has been installed, user experience varies as the app has compatibility issues with various devices," Symantec said on its official blog today. "However, many users will not have the capability to uninstall the malicious app as the malware will attempt to prevent other apps from being launched. The threat will also change the settings of the operating system. In some cases, users may not even be able to perform a factory data reset on the device."
If they are "lucky," some users may be able to perform a simple uninstall because the app may crash when executed because of compatibility issues, Symantec says.
Symantec adds: "The apps were found on third-party websites. Some came disguised as a version of Skype that would allow you to make free phone calls, and when you installed it took you to the fake antivirus."
The growing Android malware problem is also providing traditional anti-malware vendors, such as Symantec, with a new market for mobile-device anti-malware protections.
- 2